College of Dentistry
Cruz-Almeida Lab
Led by Yenisel Cruz-Almeida · Community Dentistry and Behavioral Science
What we study
The lab studies pain perception and modulation in humans using psychophysics, neuroimaging, and epigenetics to understand nervous system factors affecting pain differences and their impact on mobility and cognition.
What working here is like
- Clinical
- Human participants
- Coding helps
- Projects
- 4
- Papers
- 5
Current projects
Collaborative for REsearch to Advance TMD Evidence (CREATE)
Takes part in CREATE, a collaboration working to gather stronger evidence about temporomandibular disorders, which cause jaw pain.
Innervation of the knee and TMJ
Maps the nerves that supply the knee and the temporomandibular joint (the jaw joint) to help explain how pain arises in each.
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Biopsychosocial pain predictors of mobility decline in aging
Studies how pain, together with biological, psychological and social factors, predicts loss of mobility in older adults.
DNA Methylation of the NR3C1 Genes and its Association with Chronic Pain
The lab compared DNA methylation patterns of the stress‑related NR3C1 gene in blood from adults aged 45‑85 with knee osteoarthritis, grouping them by pain level. Three specific sites were more methylated in people with chronic pain, and two sites differed between high‑impact and lower‑impact pain groups. Future work will look at other stress genes.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 477
Summaries are written by AI in plain language from public symposium abstracts and may be imperfect.
Recent papers, explained
- Sleep‐Severity Profiles in Temporomandibular Disorder: A Cluster‐Analytic Approach to Identifying Biopsychosocial Subgroups
2026 · Journal of Oral Rehabilitation
Identifies sleep profiles in TMD patients using clustering and psychological measures.
- Localized surface-based morphometric differences in painful temporomandibular disorder
2026 · Neuroimage Reports
Finds brain structure differences in painful TMD patients using MRI.
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- Consistency of ASCQ-Me Scores Across Repeated Measures in Sickle Cell Disease
2026 · Western Journal of Nursing Research
Checked if quality-of-life scores in sickle cell disease stay consistent over time.
- Quarterly Sleep–Pain Coupling in Knee Pain: Pain-to-Sleep Dominance, Localization Dependence, and Reward-Circuit Moderation of Sleep-to-Pain Coupling
2026 · Journal of Pain
Examines sleep-pain coupling over three years in knee pain patients.
- Beyond Pain: A Pilot Study of Neurodegenerative and Mitochondrial Pathway Alterations in Sickle Cell Disease Using Platelet Proteomics
2026 · Medical Sciences
Analyzed proteins in sickle cell disease platelets to find links between pain and mitochondrial issues.
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
Yenisel Cruz-Almeida hasn't set up this page yet. You can also look them up in the UF directory (search “Yenisel Cruz-Almeida”).